Bayern Munich certainly made their opening league game challenging. The German giants were ultimately able to weather a second-half VFL Wolfsburg storm and achieve the win.
Bayern have their forward players to thank for being able to leave Wolfsburg with three points. Bayern controlled much of the first half and earned a well-worked opening goal from Jamal Musiala. Sacha Boey was able to use his athleticism at right-back to dominate the right channel and deliver a peach of a ball into Musiala’s path for a tap-in.
Even though Bayern earned an early lead, the forward players missed several chances created. Segre Gnabry in particular had two good chances in the first half which he squandered. Harry Kane whacked a shot into Kamil Grabara’s face from close range. The hard work for Grabara continued as he had to save a Joshua Kimmich header from close range too.
The Bundesliga debutant Michael Olise acquitted himself admirably in the first half, creating five chances. The sense seemed that Wolfsburg would retain a chance if they made it to halftime only a goal down. That sense turned out to be correct.
A rapid start from Wolfsburg and a real lack of concentration from Bayern resulted in the concession of a penalty. Lovro Majer confidently slotted the penalty away and this bolstered Wolfburg’s presence in the game. The goal was the catalyst Wolfsburg needed to play with more conviction.
The increase in stadium noise seemed to be affecting Kim Min-Jae. Patrick Wimmer caught Min-Jae on the ball and was able to set up Majer for his brace. This was Wolfsburg’s second goal in eight minutes and it represented a very obvious momentum swing. Wolfsburg was using the crowd and Bayern at this moment in time was drowning.
It became apparent very quickly that Bayern needed cooler heads to steer them back on course. Vincent Kompany subbing on Thomas Muller made perfect sense for this situation. The Muller inclusion immediately bore fruit as he thought he had scored a goal with his first touch. The Bayern equalizer turned out to be a Jakub Kamininski own goal in which the ball had crossed the line before Muller touched it.
Muller’s impact was felt regardless, not just through his experience and leadership but also his quality on the ball. Kompany made an informed decision to move Musiala deeper and situate Muller in the ’10’ position. Musiala’s imperious dribbling meant that Bayern could cut through the Wolfsburg midfield with more efficiency.
Muller’s positioning in the middle of the final third was instrumental in Bayern’s game-winning goal. Muller received the ball on the half-turn, simultaneously shrugging his marker to the side. He then quickly released the ball to Kane, who then set up Gnabry for a clinical finish into the far corner.
This game was a textbook example of how beneficial it can be to possess dangerous attacking spoils. Though Wolfsburg arguably deserved a point from this game, they did not have Bayern’s attacking quality. Kompany’s attackers proved their reliability today.
PHOTOS: IMAGO
